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The horror we faced was unimaginable to most of the world in 2009, except for the terrorists that had been planning the new attacks against America for a long time. They simply waited since 9/11 for the right time to strike us when we were vulnerable.

We had fought them in other countries and destroyed many of their training camps, unaware they had crossed our unguarded borders years ago. They had accumulated many nuclear suitcases under our noses, and planned their attacks carefully.

For years, we had felt safer since the destruction of the World Trade Center, thinking our government would protect us from any further devastating attacks. It seemed preparations and planning had been carefully carried out to protect us.

Suddenly, it happened in 2009. The terrorists over-ran the security forces at ten nuclear reactors in the northeast. They were able to detonate several nuclear suitcases at each reactor, causing a core meltdown and destroying the containment buildings. The highly radioactive plutonium in the reactors exploded from lack of cooling and was scattered about the surrounding area. Some of the plutonium core burned through the containment building's ground floor at each reactor and continued until reaching ground water.

Our immediate concern was highly radioactive Cesium 137 which now contaminated most of the northeast and made it uninhabitable for hundreds of years. We were able to evacuate many of the millions of people living there, but most had received high dosages of radiation before escaping. Many would certainly die of radiation sickness in time.

Most of the population from the Northeast was being sheltered in many states in the Midwest. Scientists continued to monitor the radiation plume from the reactors which remained east of Ohio. Due to wind currents, it lingered making any inhabitation impossible for centuries. The size of each reactor's radiation cloud was hundreds of miles wide.

Hysteria gripped much of the nation and many military personnel deserted their posts to join their fleeing families in the east. This left many reactors on the west coast vulnerable to more attacks. The terrorists had planned their attacks to have a domino effect.

Our greatest fear has come true. New bombings at several reactors on the west coast caused similar effects of radioactive clouds, causing the population to flee to east. Radioactive clouds formed from the new meltdowns at reactors in California, and the huge plumes began to move east with the normal wind patterns.

The terrorists had also taken over several reactors in Canada and Mexico and threatened to detonate their nuclear suitcases at each reactor, if the two countries helped America in any way. Canada and Mexicoplaced their armed forces on their borders to dissuade Americans from fleeing across their borders for sanctuary from the radiation.

We were trapped. .There was not enough time to evacuate the remaining 200 million people to safe countries around the world. Our new government in Chicago began a lottery, which chose seven hundred thousand Americans to be airlifted to Europe to avoid the radioactive fallout from California. Riots were prevalent as Americans killed each other for passage on each plane, to avoid certain death from the radiation.

This is certainly the end of this great country. I sit here waiting for my death, and watching others scramble in fear.

For those of you who are gald this is only fiction and a horror story - Google "American Hiroshima".

Learn more about this author, Donald Z. Smith.
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